Category: International

My Times Today.A 21-year-old man from Georgia has been arrested and charged over allegations he plotted to attack the White House blowing a hole in it with an anti-tank rocket then storming the building with guns and grenades, United States prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, of the Atlanta suburb of Cumming, was arrested in Gwinnett County on Wednesday and appeared briefly in federal court in Atlanta in a case brought the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Byung Pak, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, told reporters.

His alleged intent was to attack the White House and other targets of opportunity in the Washington, D.C., area using explosive devices, including an improvised explosive device, an anti-tank rocket,” Pak said. All threats have been neutralized, Pak said in a statement.

It was not clear whether Taheb had a lawyer. A criminal complaint said around March 2018 a community member contacted law enforcement to say Taheb had become “radicalized.” On Aug. 25, 2018, Taheb put his vehicle up for sale and an FBI informant showed interest in buying it, the complaint said

At a December 2018 meeting with an undercover FBI agent, Taheb said he wanted to do as much damage as possible and he expected to become a “martyr.” Taheb told the agent to acquire weapons and explosives for the White House attack. Later that month he told the agent he also planned to attack the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument and a synagogue. He wanted to use semi-automatic weapons, an “AT-4” anti-tank weapon and hand grenades, the complaint said. It said Taheb hoped to carry out the attack on or about Jan. 17, together with the agent and the informant.

My Times Today.US President Donald Trump is due to unveil a revamped US missile defense strategy on Thursday that looks at ways to boost America`s security, including possibly deploying a new layer of space-based sensors to detect and track enemy missiles.

The Missile Defense Review will also recommends studying experimental technologies, including prospects for space-based weaponry that might be able to shoot down enemy missiles — a throwback to Ronald Reagan`s so-called “Star Wars” initiative in the 1980s.

“Space, I think, is the key to the next step of missile defense,” a senior Trump administration official told reporters ahead of the document`s release on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “A space-based layer of sensors is something we are looking at to help get early warning and tracking and discrimination of missiles when they are launched.”